TLDR: Which distro is better for gaming and video editing (NVIDIA GPU), CachyOS or Ubuntu?

Hi! It’s been probably a month since I started using Linux (escaping from Windows), and I choose LMDE since the distro that I felt aligned more with what I want from a distro on in general is Debian, but since it was my first time using Linux on my main device (just tried Debian on a laptop to run a Homelab) I got recommended Mint to make it easier for me to adapt. The thing is that since I started using LMDE I’ve discovered that it doesn’t cover perfectly my needs. Two things that I didn’t want to lose when switching to Linux were gaming and the ability to run video/audio/photo editing programs flawlessly, mainly DaVinci Resolve and AffinityPhoto. It’s been practically impossible to achieve that, since DaVinci doesn’t work, can’t even get to install AffinityPhoto and some videogames need more recent (NVIDIA) drivers than what Debian and of course LMDE can offer. So, seeing that I want to keep LMDE (and maybe in the future upgrade from LMDE to Debian) but at the same time I’m not willing to give up on those 2 things, I believe the dual-boot option is the one that suits me the most. Now, what I’m here for. I’ve been doing some research and the ones that caught my atention the most were CachyOS and Ubuntu:

  • CachyOS: PROS: · High gaming performance and (looks like) compatibility. · Looks like DaVinci works perfectly for a lot of people (although some other people claim having issues). CONS: · Sounds too complex as a distro for someone who has close to zero programming knowledge and just started using Linux. · The rolling release aspect feels a little scary too.

  • Ubuntu: PROS: · May not be THE gaming distro but it seems to be working for a lot of people without having extensive programming or Linux knowledge. · Generally may be more compatible and stable than CachyOS in general · Seems it will be easier for me to adapt to since it’s Debian-based. CONS: · Doesn’t seem as good as CachyOS on a performance standpoint, affecting both video editing and gaming capabilities.

Now, my questions would be: Am I mistaken in any of the info I have revolving these two distros? Could I be missing any other options? Which do you think is the distro that could suit me the most? Any recommendation when doing the Dual-boot? I have never done it and it scares me a little tbh.

My main priority is having a stable (and compatible in the first place, of course) experience (maybe Ubuntu?), but I don’t mind having to put more work into it to achieve a better experience (maybe CachyOS?).

I would love to hear from you and, of course, if I’m missing any relevant information I’ll be more than happy to share it too.

Thank you very much! :D

  • Maya S. Trojan@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    Possibly the best advice here re: the distro.

    While it helps to have people give you suggestions, the person who it really needs to work for is you, the user. Don’t let popular opinion turn you away from what works for you, OP. Experiment and play. It costs nothing to put on a new system except some time and effort.

    Also, if you put your home/ directory on its own partition, you can experiment with variations of the same types, like the all the variations of Ubuntu. I’m pretty sure modern installers even back up the dotfiles that exist in your current home/ directory for you, so you don’t even have to worry about old dotfiles breaking anything.

    • Well1@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      2 hours ago

      Thanks for your kind advice :D Though I didn’t get the half of what you said in the last paragraph hahahah. Guess it shows I wasn’t lying when I said I’m new xd

      • Maya S. Trojan@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        okay, well, your root directory is always / that’s where your system stuff lives like /usr/ /bin/ /etc/ et cetera. however, you also have in there alongside the system stuff a /home/ directory, which is where your user data lives. Think of /home/ as your C:\Users\ folder. It’s where whatever your username and its data is is going to live.

        The thing is, when installing the OS, you can choose to set up (manually) to have your /home/ directory on another disk or disk partition, which separates it from the root / directory psychically or logically respectively.

        It would be like if you could re-install windows entirely but never lose your C:\Users\ folder because it actually lived at D:\Users\ and Windows just always looked for your users folder upon install (which Ubuntu does) and allows you to re-use it if it finds it.

        So:\ / = C:\\ /home/ = C:\Users\

        These aren’t 1 to 1 matches in terms of analogy, but it’s pretty close.